Title: Peacemaking and Mothering in Belize
Kiesha Warren-Gordon, PhD
Benjamin V. Cohen Peace Grant Recipient
Professor of Criminal Justice/Criminology
Director of African American Studies
Ball State University
Muncie, Indiana USA
Dr. Kiesha Warren-Gordon is currently a Professor of Criminal Justice/Criminology and the director of the African American studies program at Ball State University where she also serves as an affiliate faculty member in the Gender and Women’s Studies program and an Advisory Board member of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. Dr. Warren-Gordon substantive areas include violence against women and critical community engagement. She has worked as a victim advocate and a community engagement specialist collaborating with partners in the United States, Ghana, and Belize. Dr. Warren-Gordon is the recipient 2020-2021 Ball State University Faculty Service Award and the 2023 Indiana Commission of Higher Education Bepko award for community engagement. As well as the 2023-24 Ball State University Outstanding Diversity Advocate Award.
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Title: Examining the Water-Peace Nexus and Indigenous Water Management Practices of the Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park, Nepal through an Integrated Environmental Peacebuilding Lens
Emily Hayes, PhD Candidate
Benjamin V. Cohen Peace Grant Recipient
Ball State University
Muncie, Indiana USA
Emily Hayes is an Environmental Science PhD Candidate at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She earned a MSc degree in Geology from Ball State in 2016, where she conducted field-based environmental research on the relationship of drinking water quality and climate change with the influence of growing tourism trends in the Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park, Nepal. Her current interests focus on exploring the dynamic relationship between natural resource management and peace, utilizing tools and concepts of environmental peacebuilding to understand the water/climate/peace nexus in the SNP. She also conducts research and advocates for bottom-up approaches to indigenous and community-based resource management. Currently, other research interests are focused on the local food system and understanding the unique relationship between people and food as a resource and its potential to be a catalyst for peacebuilding efforts in local communities.